macroeconomics, origins and history of

Abstract

Macroeconomics, the analysis of economic aggregates, became a recognized field with Keynes's General Theory (1936) and its mathematical and diagrammatic reformulations, and the macroeconometric modelling pioneered by Tinbergen and Frisch. Macroeconomics grew out of two long-standing traditions: business cycle analysis from Jevons and Juglar to Mitchell, and monetary theory, building on the work of Hume, Thornton, Ricardo, Wicksell, and Fisher, supplemented by the circular flow analysis of Quesnay and Marx.